Party before patriotism

January 10, 2018

It seems that every day there's a new revelation leading us down the same path as Nazi Germany. First and foremost, there's been the political assault on our Constitutionally-protected free press. President Trump continues his relentless assault on the free press calling the free press "the enemy of the people." Any student of political history knows the importance of a free press in preserving a democratic society. The free press is actually the enemy of tyranny. Only tyrants attack the free press. Other indicators of our rapid slide down a slippery slope to totalitarianism are the White House and U.S. Congressional attacks on the Constitutional rights of average Americans, including consumer rights and employee rights, mostly in favor of corporate power and profits.

The latest assault on our Democracy is a call by Francis Rooney, a U.S. Congressional Representative, to "purge" federal government agencies of employees who are not loyal to President Trump. Is Rooney suggesting that all federal employees be required to take a loyalty oath of support for Donald Trump? It appears so.

It's understandable that Francis Rooney and his GOP colleagues are concerned about the outcome of the Russia investigations, investigations that Donald Trump insists are a "witch hunt." But the GOP extreme efforts to discredit these investigations, efforts that are undermining our judicial system, add credence to the concerns of Russian interference and Trump collusion with Russia to affect the outcome of the 2016 election.

If Francis Rooney and the GOP actually believed that there was no collusion and want to end Russian interference in our elections, then they would fully back the Mueller investigation and stop stonewalling Congressional investigations into Russian interference, and would let the resulting facts lead us to the truth. Unfortunately, the truth is that Francis Rooney and the GOP are instead putting Party before patriotism, which is washing away the very foundation of our Democratic Republic.